Off Limits
by anxiousgeek
Summary: Sam/Jeannie Miller, set during McKay And Mrs Miller. She always fell for women that were off-limits.


"I'm a little jealous, you know," Sam said, knowing it didn't sound like she meant it, "of you."

"Me?" Jeannie turned away from her laptop and smiled at Sam. She still had that look of wonder in her eyes, glossed by shock, and it made her look a little silly, a little startled, but no less pretty. And Sam thought she was very pretty, in a hippy sort of way that reminded her of 1969. In a nice way.

"Of the choice you made," Sam said, she leant over the lab bench facing her, arms crossed and pushing her breasts up just a little, just in case the other woman looked, just in case she was interested. She was off-limits, married, Rodney's sister, a vital part of this project, and while in her much younger days, she might have risked it anyway, she couldn't now.

Definitely not with Rodney's sister.

"Really?" Sam nodded.

"I nearly made the same decision, I was engaged, due to get married, we were even talking about starting a family."

"Why didn't you?"

"My career was taking off, I was being fought over by different Air Force projects. I had the opportunity to work anywhere in the world...I had to make the choice."

"Marriage or your career."

"Exactly."

"I take it you didn't get married then," Jeannie said, reaching out and taking Sam's left hand, rubbing her ring finger gently with the pad of her thumb. Sam sighed and smiled.

Off-limits.

"We broke up," she said, "went our separate ways."

"No one since?"

"Yeah, but it didn't work out, too into my career by that point." She gave a few short nods and Jeannie smiled, squeezed Sam's hand, before letting go.

"I don't regret any of it," she said, "I've saved the world a few times, seen amazing things, beautiful places and people."

"Worked with Mer."

"Rodney is an acquired taste," she said, making the other woman laugh, "not my taste but still, he is smart, has his moments"

"I won't tell him you said that."

"Thank you." They laughed and Sam moved round the bench to stand next to her, resiting the urge to touch their shoulders together for a whole second.

"What about you?" Sam asked, glancing at the laptop, then up at Jeannie who was smiling at her, a pretty smile on a pretty face.

Off-limits.

A blush spread over Jeannie's face at the attention. At least, that's what Sam told herself.

"Any regrets?" she asked, continuing the conversation before the moment could get awkward.

"Not for a second," Jeannie said, smiling, "I have Madison, and I wouldn't trade that for any space ship or alien encounter." Sam laughed again.

"Like I said, I'm jealous," Sam said, "a little."

"Well, I never said you can't have both," Jeannie said bumping her hip against Sam's so lightly she was sure she had imagined it, "a point I tried to argue with Meredith, you can have both but I didn't want both, what's so wrong with that?!" She ended the point, frustrated, arms thrown in the air.

"Nothing," Sam said, "Rodney is a jerk a lot of the time."

"Most of the time," Jeannie sighed.

"Glad it's not just me he winds up so much."

"Only those closest."

"Oh, please don't say that," Sam groaned, pushing away from the bench with both hands. Jeannie laughed, light and lovely in Sam's ears.

Off-limits.

She sighed, she always fell for women that were off-limits. Kate Pelan (another General's daughter) in college, Captain Kelly Cooper at the academy (when she was a cadet), it was a long list of beautiful women she had fallen in lust with, ending with Janet Fraiser (a colleague and straight) and now Jeannie Miller. Mrs.

She supposed that was the attraction. That these women were off-limits, whether they were straight or otherwise didn't matter. She had been with a few women who weren't off-limits, but more that weren't (including the wife of her physics lecturer).

"Are you okay Colonel?"

"Sam," she said leaning back against the cabinets behind her.

"Are you okay Sam?" she said, smiling, turning around and leaning on the lab bench.

"I'm fine."

"It's just, you look like...you look a little lost and like you want to kiss me." Sam jumped off the cabinets, surprised.

"Oh, um, you remind me of an ex-girlfriend, that's all," Jeannie just smiled at Sam's half lie, which surprised her further.

"Really?"

"Yeah, this girl, back in '69." So it was a complete lie, but time travel was always a good distraction.

"1969?"

"Solar flares," Sam said, as if it were enough of explanation on it's own. Though, for Jeannie Miller, it was.

"Of course, if a solar flare happened the exact moment you went through the gate, the increased gravity would slingshot you back to Earth."

"And back in time. Or forward."

"You went to the future?!"

"For a minute," Sam said, smiling at the new look of wonder on the woman's face, beaming with the new information and Sam guessed she looked like she wanted to kiss her again, because she really, really did.

Off-limits.

She took a step towards Jeannie anyway, and Rodney came bursting into the lab, a box of donuts in one hand, half a pink donut in the other and frosting on his face.

"Mmonut?" he asked, Sam and Jeannie both rolled their eyes, turning away from Rodney and back to the laptop, "Mmmwhat?"

"Nothing," the blondes said together, looking at each other. Jeannie smiled at Sam, touching her hand for a moment before tapping a few keys.

She had to wonder how off-limits Mrs Miller was and Sam hoped she got to go to Atlantis with them, to work on this project, and to spend more time with her. For now, it was back to work, and she bumped both her shoulder and hip against Jeannie's in one fluid motion, more firmly this time, and took a donut from Rodney.


End file.
